Tarriffs: Piyush Goyal said – Our effective tariff on US is just 7-8%, China responsible for the chaos in the world

New Delhi| Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said India’s effective tariff on the US is barely 7 to 8 per cent which cannot be said to be too high. Refusing to give any information about the ongoing trade agreement talks with the US, Goyal said India is confident that it can enter into bilateral trade agreements with countries that adopt fair trade policies.

The Commerce Minister blamed China’s wrong business policies for the current chaos in the world’s business world. He also said that Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD will not be allowed to enter India at present. Goyal said, we are not in the era of ending globalization but this is the era of re-evaluation. In such a situation, if countries having clean business policies come together, it will create better opportunities for India.

Regarding US tariffs, Goyal clarified that the duty imposed by India is a measure to protect the economy from conditions like protection against bad trade and dumping. He said, India’s total tariff on America is around 17 per cent but a large part of it is of things which India does not import at all. In such a situation, our effective tariff on America comes to about 7 to 8 percent, which is not very high.

Asked how the U.S. imposed a 26 per cent tariff on India despite PM Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump having such a good relationship, Goyal said, it has nothing to do with enmity or friendship. This is a formula based calculation.

How will America stop goods being sent through a low tariff country
The minister wondered how the US would be able to implement the recently announced reciprocal tariffs. He said, we have seen such cases in which low tariff countries were used to send goods to America. As was the case with Vietnam, when Trump imposed high tariffs on China in his first term.